Amen. I turn back with me to
Galatians chapter 2. You're looking at verse 11 through verse 14. Scripture says, But when Peter
was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was
to be blamed. For before that certain came
from James, he did eat with the Gentiles, but when they were
come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were
of the circumcision. And other Jews disassembled likewise
with him, insomuch that Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation.
And when I saw that he walked not uprightly according to the
truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, Thou being
a Jew, livest after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as do
the Jews. Why compelst thou the Gentiles
to live as the Jews? We who are Jews by nature are
not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. For
by the works of the law shall no flesh, be justified. That's the importance of conduct. The importance of conduct. Now, in the previous verses,
Paul defended himself. This church had gone astray from
the gospel. He told them that they were hearing
another gospel, which was not another. Salvation is by the
grace of God alone and not by the works of the law. And some
of these Judaizers were saying, well, Paul, he's an apostle,
but not really an upper echelon apostle. He's one of the lower
apostles. And Paul defends himself in verses 10, I think, to our
text in chapter 2. He defends his apostleship. He
said, I received my gospel from men. I received it directly from
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he defends his apostleship.
His message came from Christ. He showed them that it was approved
and accepted by the other apostles, yes, but only as it came from
Christ first. Now in verses 11 through 21,
Paul gives an account of a time that Peter visited the church.
It says, Peter came to Antioch, and I withstood him to the face,
because he was to be blamed. Now Paul withstood him because
he was to be blamed. What in the world took place
here? Why should the Apostle Paul rebuke
the Apostle Peter in public? It must have been very important.
It must have been very important. And friends, it was not only
important, it was vital that he do that. This was not some
misdemeanor. This was not some point of contention,
some aside thing. This was a vital thing that Peter
had done. He said he should be blamed.
This is what it's for. For certain came from James,
and he did eat with the Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew
and separated himself, fearing them that were the circumcision. Paul stood him to the face for
what? Peter had come at a time of fellowship. He had come at a time of fellowship
and was eating with the Gentiles. He was there on a very important
mission. He was to strengthen the Gentile
believers at Antioch because there was trouble there. There was a misunderstanding.
There was a point of contention concerning the law and the gospel
of grace. Peter was there to strengthen
the claim that salvation is in no part based on the law of Moses. No part. That's why he came. You remember that Peter and other
apostles had just written a letter to this church at Antioch stating
that the law of Moses had no part in their justification But
that it was the faith of Christ that justifies him. And Paul
reminds him of this in verse 16. That we are justified by
the faith of Jesus Christ. That by the faith of Jesus Christ
we are justified and that justification is made ours through faith in
Jesus Christ. The application of that justification
takes place when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He said
even we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. What do we believe? That we were justified by the
faith of Jesus Christ. That's what we believe. And so Peter was sitting there
and he was eating his pork sandwich. Why is this important? I mean,
we joke about this, this was very important because the law
specifically said that they were not allowed to eat it. The law
of Moses forbid it, that they were allowed to eat it. He was eating his pork sandwich
with a side of coleslaw and mashed potatoes and everything was going
well until these Jews came in from James. And as soon as they
walked in, Peter immediately pushed aside his sandwich, got
up deliberately, and separated himself with these Jews. He said, I'll take some more
unleavened bread and some water. Why? Because that's what the
law demanded. Now these men that came, this
is very important, he did this for a very specific reason because
he knew these men that came thought that to obey the law, that by
their obeying the law that they were separating themselves. They
were distinguishing themselves. They believed they were honoring
God by their obedience to the law. And Peter, though he did truly
in his heart not believe that, he did not want to offend these
men. He was afraid of offending them,
so what did he do? He went along with them in this. Friends, he got up from these
Gentiles, he refused to sit with them because he feared them. He feared to offend them. He
thought because his eating was contrary to the law that he would
somehow excite their prejudice to think he was against the law. He said, well, if I'm eating
this, then they're going to think that I'm against the law. So
what did he do? He separated himself. Isn't this
what modern progressive sanctification is? By obedience to some measure
of the law, I am separating myself from those who do not. You know, the disciples earlier
feared when Jesus spoke to those self-righteous Pharisees. They
said, Lord, don't you know you offended them? The Lord knew
he offended them. He did it on purpose. He offended
them on purpose. Why? Because what they were teaching
was contrary to the gospel. And so what was the message Peter
was sending to those that saw him? What was the implication
of his actions? And what is the result then of
his conduct? Paul says he was to be blamed
for what? Look at verse 14. For when I
saw that he walked not uprightly, listen, according to the gospel
of the, according to the truth of the gospel. This was no small
thing that Peter did. I mean, you look at it and you
think, well, Peter, he just decided that it was bad for him to eat
that sandwich because he wanted to honor the law. I mean, the
reasoning behind it sounds logical. Peter wanted to honor God. He
wanted to honor the law. He didn't want to offend these
people over here. So he had a lot of good motives.
But they were all wrong. Why? Because what he did was
contrary to the truth of the gospel. It was so important that
Paul had to rebuke him immediately. He couldn't take him aside. Why?
Because he saw that it caused all these others to follow him. It was a very important situation. He was to be blamed and rebuked
by Paul because he walked not uprightly according to the truth
of the gospel. In other words, this word uprightly means uneven. He was walking uneven. His profession
was salvation is by the grace of God alone. That's his profession.
But his conduct was that the law of God still had something
to do with it. It's uneven. The matter of law and grace is
an either or principle. Doesn't Paul say that in another
place? He says, if it is of grace, then it is no longer of works.
Otherwise, what? Grace is no more grace. And if
it is works and not grace, then work is no more work. You've
totally redefined the words grace and works. These two cannot coexist. Either salvation is completely
by the grace, power, and mercy of God, or it is all of works. It is not a mixture. This is why the contention was
necessary. He walked unevenly. Listen to
Peter's confession. I want you to hear Peter. Go
to Acts chapter 15. Listen to what Peter wrote these people.
He wrote this to them. This was the point of contention. Look at Acts 15 in verse 7. Verse 6 says, When the apostles
and elders came together for to consider the matter. What
was the matter? The matter was circumcision. The matter was
law and grace. That was the matter. That was
the contention. Do the Gentiles need to be circumcised
too? This was a point of contention.
And listen to what Peter said in verse 7. He said, And when
there had been much disputing. Oh gosh, it's always disputing. When there is much disputing,
Peter rose up and said to them, Men and brethren, you know how
that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles
by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
unto us. Now what was this matter he was talking about at the time
of Cornelius? You remember that he was sitting on top of that
roof And he was fasting and the Lord gave him that vision of
all this food, all this food that the law forbid them to eat. And the Lord said, take eat.
Peter said, no, I ain't going to do it. The Lord taught Peter a lesson
by this. He said, no, you're going to eat it. You're going
to eat it. Why? Because you're not under
the law, Peter. That's why. And he said, you're
going to go to a Gentile's house and I'm going to show you that
salvation has come to the Gentiles just as much as it is to Jews.
And this is how it's come. Without the law. Salvation without
your merit. He said, the Lord gave them the
Holy Ghost as he did us. Same way. By grace. And put no
difference between us and them, purifying their hearts, how?
By faith. by faith. He said, even as he
did us, not by law, but by the grace of faith. Now therefore,
why tempt you God to put the yoke upon the neck of the disciples,
which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? Why in
the world are you trying to put a yoke on them? We couldn't bear
it. We couldn't satisfy it, and we
were Jews. The law was given to the Jews.
And he said, we couldn't bear it. So why in the world would
you take a yoke that we can't bear and put it on them? He said, but we believe that
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that we shall be
saved even as they. I like that. He didn't reverse.
He said, didn't say that they should be saved even as we. He
said, no, we're going to be saved just like them, without the law. They didn't have the law growing
up. They didn't know anything about the law. They were saved
without it. And that's how God's going to
save us, even as them. And Peter wrote this epistle
to this group of believers. But now see that because he wouldn't
offend these that came by his actions, he was denying what
he just said. By his separating himself according
to the law, he was denying what he just told him. He was denying the gospel of
grace. He was saying that by his conduct that the law of Moses
is important, that we must, who are saved by grace, we must somehow
honor it. And Paul said, you're to be blamed.
because you do not the truth according to the gospel. But notice, not only Peter was
drawn away by this, but also many of the Jews and even Barnabas,
verse 13. He said, the other Jews, go back
to your text, the other Jews, the other Jews disassembled likewise
with him insomuch that Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation. Now Barnabas, was a man that
preached the gospel with the Apostle Paul, was raised up with
the Apostle, sent with the Apostle Paul. In other words, listen
to me very carefully. This man knew the gospel. This
man knew it. If anybody in that whole room
besides the Apostle Paul knew the gospel, Barnabas knew it.
He knew it. Yet because of his great respect
for Peter, as well as seeing many others
turn aside by his action, he himself also was turned. Now
get the picture very carefully. Peter, I'm sure that Peter was
not trying to influence anyone else. I'm sure that wasn't his
intention to influence anyone else. But when he did that, he
did. Get the picture, there's Peter
and those disciples from James. And now then, the whole other
part of the Jews got up and did the same thing. So on this side of the room,
you got all the Jews over here in Barnabas. You know who's left
over here? These poor, confused Gentiles
and Paul. Paul is standing by him. He's
the only Jew on that side. And he stands over there and
listen, out of his love for the gospel, he rebuked him to the
face. Friends, I do not care to stand
alone. I declare to you that salvation
is 100,000% by the grace of God. It is 100,000%
by the power of God, by the will of God, by the blood of Christ,
by the righteousness of Christ, by the sanctification of the
Father, sanctification of the Spirit, and sanctification of
Jesus Christ's offering. My salvation is totally, absolutely,
100% dependent upon Him, and nothing is dependent upon me.
Nothing. Everything I have, I'm given.
I have faith, where does that come from? I have love, where
does that come from? I have joy, peace, meekness,
temperance, where does that come from? No, it comes from God. All of
it. All of it comes from God. So it doesn't matter if I stand
alone in this. Salvation is by no means or measure
by the works of man. None. None of it. And so then it doesn't matter
who disembolates. It didn't bother him in this
sense to stand alone in this matter. And so then if we must
stand alone, then we must stand alone. What then does the Spirit intend
to teach us by this passage, and what can we learn from the
conduct of Peter and the rebuke of Paul? That's what I want to
know. What can we learn? Why was this put into the Holy Writ? What can we learn? I want to tell you this right
off the bat. If Peter can be tempted, we all can be. That's
what I can learn about this. You understand that? The Apostle
Peter? Do you not think we too can be tempted by this? To separate
ourselves by the law? We can. Why? Because this is
our nature. That old nature that still resides
in us is tempted to this. We want to see some results. I want to look at my actions
and say, see there, that's proof. When the only proof I need is
the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's all the
proof I need. But yet my flesh wants to look
for something else. I want to measure something. These Jews wanted to say, I've
got something here. I am measuring my separation
from all these Gentiles by my obedience to the law. So if Peter can be lured into
this, we all can. Why? Because it's seducing. Listen
to me. The idea of progressive sanctification
is seducing. I'll tell you this, when I was
younger, It was utterly confusing. I listened to a man on the radio.
I said his name. You know him all. I'm not going
to say that. But I listened to him constantly. He was preaching
constant progressive sanctification. And man, it sounded logical. It sounded good. Why? Because
I wanted to be righteous. I didn't want to sin. So he was
telling me how. And all he was doing was throwing
burdens on me that I couldn't bear. So I understand the seductive
nature of it. I was seduced by it. Listen to
me, so was the Apostle Peter. So if he can, I can. Secondly, listen to this, our
walk must match our talk. Our doctrine and our practice
must be consistent. In this, salvation is by grace,
through faith in Christ alone. That's my talk, and that is my
walk. That is my walk. We as believers
know, that's what Paul says in verse 16, knowing. There's some
we know. That a man is not justified by
the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. I
know that. You know that? You that believe? That all our righteousness is
of Christ. Why? Because my righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. I know that. That's something
I know. Our righteousness is not of ourselves, but by the
faithfulness of Jesus Christ. We know this, that the blood
of Christ has redeemed us from all our sin. Now you believe
that? That you have been fully redeemed
from all your sins. Sins you have not even yet committed. They've been redeemed. What do
you have in the absence, when there's no sin, what do you have? Holiness, all right? If there
is no sin, there's what? Holiness. This is what Christ
has done for us. This is what he means by sanctified
us by his offering. Once, we've been sanctified,
we've been made holy. Why? He has removed our sins
from us. As far as the east is from the
west. So far has he removed our transgressions
from us. By his one offering, we are forever
sanctified, those who believe in Jesus Christ. And the proof
of this is the faith in Christ. He said, knowing we are not justified
by the works of the law, by the faith of Christ, even we have
believed in Jesus Christ. That's the proof that I've been
justified by the faith of Christ, even faith in Christ. that we might be justified by
the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. For
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. In Philippians chapter 1, Paul
says this, he says in verse 27, only let your conversation be
as becometh the gospel of Christ. Where conversation means citizenship,
let your citizenship. How were you made a citizen of
heaven? Were you made a citizen of heaven
by works or by grace? How are we to conduct ourselves
knowing this, that I was saved by grace? Does that give me any
level of pride above anyone else? Does that give me any points
of glory in myself, that I can set myself above you. No! This causes me to walk lowly
in humility and love and compassion and grace. Why? Because that's
how I was made a citizen. I was made a citizen. And I'm
subject to the king of heaven. I'm subject to his law. What is his law? His law is faith
and love. That is his law. And so I am
to constantly walk not by law of Moses, not by the law of the
church, but by the law of faith and love. And it is walking by this law
that constrains me from sin. That's what constrains me from
sin. by looking to Him and His love for me. It is the love of
Christ that constraineth me, not the law of Moses. That doesn't constrain me. That only excites the sin in
me. It doesn't constrain it. And
so it is with us as believers. He said, let us let your citizenship
be as become of the gospel. For whether I come to see you
or absent, that I may hear of your affairs, that you are steadfast
in one spirit and one mind, striving together for obedience to the law." Is
that what it says? No, it doesn't say that. That
you have one mind and one spirit striving, listen, for the faith
of the gospel. driving together to declare the
truth that salvation is by the grace of God. That's what our
one mind should be toward that. Proclaiming the gospel of God's
grace without the law. We are to walk according to this
gospel. My friend, we that believe on Jesus Christ, we believe he
is the only way to the Father. Is that not true? We believe
he's the only way? Very narrow mind of us, isn't it? We're very
narrow-minded in this. You know, Christians, before
they were called Christians, they were called people of the way. Why? Because they
believed there's only one way. There's only one way to God. Through Christ. That's it. But what are we saying when we
confess that salvation is by grace, but consent to those who
preach the works of the law. What are we saying? We're telling
people there's another way. That's what we're telling them. We're walking on evenly. We're saying one thing, but we're
consenting to another way. If a man that preaches the gospel
of God's free grace and salvation is by grace through faith in
Christ, that faith is a gift of God and not of works, and
yet he sees this other preacher over here who's preaching another
gospel. He's preaching a message of free
will, salvation. He's preaching a message of works
religion. Listen to me. If we give our
consent to that, we're walking unevenly. That's what Peter was
doing. He was giving his consent to
these fellas and saying, well, yeah, salvation by grace is a
way, but this is another way. If I were to recognize the Pope
as a man of God, I would compromise the gospel of God's grace. Is
that not so? If I were to recognize a man
who believes that salvation comes by the free will of man, I would
be consenting to heresy. I would. If I did so, then I would be
a transgressor to the doctrine that I profess. I would be saying by my actions
there is another gospel. Isn't that exactly what Peter
was doing? Yes. This is the only reason
the Apostle Paul rebuked him in public. Because he was to
be blamed. He did not the truth according
to the gospel. Was he not recognizing the law
of Moses as a means of justification? Was he not by his actions sanctifying
himself by his obedience to the law of Moses? Yes! Yes, he was. Was he not giving his approval
that the Gentiles must also follow the law of Moses? Yes, he was
doing that. It was exactly what he was doing
and it was wrong. And so it is with everyone that compromises
the gospel of God's sovereign grace and salvation by identifying
and consenting with a mixture of law and works. You consent
to it, you're doing what Peter did. Now, I want to make this
very clear. Do I believe Peter was a unbeliever? Absolutely not. Of course not. As I told you at the beginning,
every believer is capable of being seduced by this. Every
one of us. Why would you be careful with
it? That's why this passage of scripture was written. Because
if we identify with them, we are consenting to their gospel.
That's what we're doing. Remember this man who preached
the gospel. He had a man in his congregation
that was a very old and elderly man. He was going deaf. You can
only talk to him by kind of yelling in his ear. It's the only way
he could hear. Yet this man was constantly faithful to attend
the church service. Constantly. He was there. Couldn't
hear a word the pastor said the whole time. Couldn't hear a word.
And the pastor just got curious and he said, brother, I don't
understand. You can't hear what I'm saying.
Why do you come? The old man thought, and he said,
I come to be identified with this message and this people. If you come here, you come to
be identified with the message that is preached in this place
and the people that believe it. You identify with it. Now, conversely,
if you go to another place that believes salvation is by works
and by grace, then you are identifying with that gospel and those people. What else can you say? So as we gather together, we
should be one in this purpose. Let our conduct then reflect
the gospel. that we believe. And in our boldness
live out the grace of God that has been given to us by holding
to Christ alone. Titus says this, for the grace
of God that bringeth salvation at the period unto all men teaching
us something. What is the grace of God? What
does the love of Christ teach you? What does the mercy of Christ
teach you? What does the blood, the offering
of Jesus Christ teach you? Denying ungodliness and worldly
lust, we live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
How? How do you live soberly, righteously,
and godly? By what standard? By what rule
of life? Looking for that blessed hope. By faith. That's how you live. That's how you walk soberly,
righteously, and godly, by looking to Christ. And when seeing Him,
love is stirred. If God would give us such grace
to see His love, it would surely stir the love in our hearts.
And that's what God does by faith. He stirs our love and compassion. And so how are we to live? We're
to live with this according to this truth that salvation is
by the grace of God alone, without the works of the law. One sailor said this, used to
be on a submarine, never desired to do that, but he said this,
one drop of diesel in the water supply contaminates the whole
supply. One drop of law in the gospel
of grace contaminates the whole thing. That's why Paul must have
withstood him to the face. That's why his conduct was to
be blamed, because he went against the... I'll go this real quick. Secondly, I want you to see this,
that our conduct is influential. Our conduct is influential. When Peter went away and compromised
with the law of Moses, he didn't do it alone. Now, he thought
he did. I don't suppose Peter had an idea of making sure that
everybody followed him. I'm sure that he felt guilt in
his own heart for dishonoring the law of Moses, and he himself
got up and did what his conscience said he should do. But in doing
so, he waived from the gospel of God's grace, and he didn't
do it alone. We read this, that even Barnabas
was moved to this dissimulation. He was moved by this action and
also distanced himself from the Gentiles, which was to consent
to the law of Moses. Let us learn from this that our
conduct is never just about us. But no matter if we desire it
or not, we will influence someone. If we consent to any false gospel, I know that this would give encouragement
to others to do the same. Our conduct is like a pebble.
It may be small. It may be singular. But once
thrown into the pond, the ripple effect goes throughout the whole
thing. Peter, no doubt, did not believe
that a man was saved by law. I don't believe he did. but his
actions were encouraging others who did. All the while he was
discouraging the Gentiles. He was discouraging them. We must understand that our actions
do affect the church. They do. Consider the matter of simply
attending the worship. You think that You come here,
you desire to hear the gospel, you desire to be fed, you desire
to be encouraged, you desire to be in strength, you desire
by grace that God would implant this gospel into your heart and
mind so that you should constantly look to Christ. Me, me, me, me. I need this. Believe me, when
I see these things, I'm writing selfishly for me. I know this. There are even our attendance
to these things either encourages or discourages others. Isn't
that right? When you're here to hear the
gospel, I am encouraged. When you're not, I am discouraged.
That's the way it works. That's why he said, forsaking
not the assembling of yourselves of the manner as some is, but
encouraging one another. See, that's what it does. Our
conduct encourages one another. Pastor once told me this. He
said, be careful what you say, because somebody is going to
believe you. It always gives me pause when
I prepare my messages, always. I still hear it in my head. When
I prepare these things, I am very careful. I seek to be very
careful. And so let us learn, then, that
we are to walk by faith and love. And know this, if we lean back
to the law, we are going to encourage someone else to do it. Thirdly,
let us learn that our conduct If our conduct is against the
gospel, it is worthy of rebuke. It's worthy of it. Paul must have necessity. And
I want to talk a little bit about rebuke because this is vitally
important. It's happened constantly in the churches. I'm not talking
about non-essential things, friends. For over 10 years, our small
congregations have gone through a great Disturbance. Separation over this idea of
how Christ was made sin. Most of you have been involved
in that. You see some gospel preachers who don't see it the
same way as someone else. They call them a heretic. Are
you a heretic? You don't see it the way I do.
How Christ was made sin. Friends, I'm here to tell you
that's not essential as to know how Christ was made sin. It is
essential to know that He was. Was he? Both sides, every time
I talked to him, agreed that Christ was made sin. But the
disagree is how? I know this, that the Apostle
Paul had much more knowledge of the Word of God than I do.
Why is that? He was writing the word. I have
the whole thing. Yet he still has more understanding.
Who gave him understanding? God did. So the measure of understanding
sometimes of things, we have little or greater understanding.
Doesn't make you a heretic because you just don't fully understand.
But that's not essential for me to know how. I just know that
he was. I believe he was. I know everybody that was fighting
among each other, rebuking everybody. They all believed he was. It
just differed on how. I remember when I was a young
preacher looking for a congregation. I wanted a pastor. This church
invited me over to preach the gospel to them. And man, they
just... You can see the love pour out of them. They were so
thankful. I preached a message of God's
mercy and grace and they just loved me. They, after Servant
Boy we ate together, they said, you know what, we got all our
pastor's books and stuff like that, we want to give them to
you. We just want to give you everything. I just thought they
was going to call me right then to be their pastor. So I said,
hey, just come back next next Sunday and preach to us again.
And I preached to him again, the gospel of God's grace. And
I think after service, they started asking me about my eschatology. They were premillennialist, I
wasn't. Next thing you know, they kicked me out. See, that's not a point of the
gospel. It's not a point of contention in the gospel that deserves rebuke.
I didn't rebuke them because they were they were premillennialist.
I may differ, but I don't have to rebuke them. I didn't I didn't
call them heretics. They called me a heretic. See, that's not essential, is
it? But this matter of works and grace is essential. Just
is. It was so essential that Paul
rebuked another apostle in front of everybody. What was Peter's response to
this? Now, look, if we are seduced
into this and the gospel and the spirit of God move us to
see our error, and it did, Peter did see his error. What was Peter's response? I don't have one. Silence. His response was one of humility. Recognizing that he did not according
to the truth of the gospel. I remember a man rebuking me.
Again, I told you I was seduced by this stuff. And a man rebuked
me concerning it. I didn't handle it like Peter.
I had a little fight in me. I had a lot of pride in me. And it wasn't the man that subdued
me, it was the Spirit. And you know that man is held
in high regard by me and I'm so thankful God did it. I am
thankful. Because many of my peers had
the same rebuke and they did not listen. And I'm telling you that those
men who did not listen, they are today away from the gospel. Every one of them. They heard the same rebuke that
I heard. We all fought it. But the spirit
of God subdued my heart. Why me? Why did I not go away? It was God that constrained me. And I'm so thankful for that. I'm so thankful. I'm
going to close with this. I read this in 1 Kings. There's
a young man of God, 1 Kings 13. He went and rebuked that wicked
king, Jeroboam. I remember he withered his hand
and the Lord revived his hand. And he told that young man, he
said, you go back this one way. Don't you turn aside. Don't you
turn aside from the way. And then this older prophet hears
what this man did, and this older prophet, he comes, he tells his
son to saddle his ass and says, hey, I'm going to go out there
and meet him. And he tells this young prophet, hey, come back
and eat with me. And he said, no. The Lord said,
do not deviate from this way. And what did the old man say? The
old prophet said, well, I got a word from the Lord, too. And
he said, it's OK. And the young man consented and
went with the old man. And you know what the Lord did? The Lord killed that young man
because of it. That lion was standing right
there over the body, remember? Didn't eat it. Very important. And the old man heard he died.
He'd come back and he took the young man and buried him in his
own tomb. and wept. Listen to me. I don't want to
be the young man. I don't want to be the one influenced
away from the way. And I don't want to be the old
man who influences anyone from the way. God, keep me in the way. Let my conduct match my profession. Salvation is by grace through
faith in Christ alone. I beg God to be merciful. I beg
him. Keep us. If he don't keep us, we can't
be saved. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Our gracious Father in heaven,
dismiss us with your mercies. Cause our hearts to bow before
the word and submit ourselves completely, looking only to Christ
and none to ourselves. Forgive us our sins. Keep us close to you. I beg you to do this in Christ's
name.